Fairview High students march Thursday to encourage youth to vote

By Amy Bounds

Staff Writer

Posted:
10/25/2018 04:38:44 PM MDT

Updated:
10/25/2018 04:39:33 PM MDT

Fairview student Natalie Brent puts a ballot in the box at the South Boulder Recreation Center Thursday. Fairview High School students, along with parents and teachers, spent their lunch hour Thursday marching from the school to the center to drop off their ballots. The march was aimed at encouraging other young adults to vote this election. (Cliff Grassmick / Staff Photographer)

Fairview students, plus some teachers and parents, marched to the South Boulder Recreation Center over their lunch hour Thursday to cast their first ballots and encourage others to vote.

"I've always wanted to vote," said senior Olivia Steinberg, who turned 18 on Wednesday and voted for the first time Thursday to cheers from classmates and teachers. "A lot of young people don't realize how much their vote matters. It's so important."

The students were met at the ballot box by Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall, who handed out "I voted" stickers, and former state Sen. Rollie Heath.

Thousands of students at schools across Boulder County in March walked out for 17 minutes to honor the 17 people killed in February in the Stoneman Douglas school shooting at Parkland, Fla.

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At Fairview's rally, three Stoneman Douglas students spoke, offering firsthand accounts of surviving a school shooting and urging students to vote. The event also included a voter registration effort.

The goal of Thursday's march, Fairview students said, was increasing the typically low voter turnout of 18- to 29-year-olds, including encouraging their classmates to register as soon as they turn 16, which is allowed by Colorado law. Voters can't cast ballots until they're 18.

In Boulder County, there are 6,520 active registered voters who are 18 and 19 — about half the total population of 18- and 19-year-olds in Boulder County, according to U.S. Census estimates.

At Thursday's march, Hall noted that young people here are better at registering to vote than actually voting.

"They don't always make it to the polls," she said.

According to the Washington Post, in 2014's midterm election just 16 percent of the eligible citizens ages 18 to 29 voted.

Actual turnout among those younger than 30 also has been about 26 points lower than the turnout rate of those 60 and older in presidential election years — and about 38 points lower in midterm years, according to the Washington Post.

Fairview senior Alden Soto, who mailed in his ballot but attended the march in support, said he is horrified by the low voter turnout in recent years, both by young people and voters in general.

"It's the primary duty of a citizen in a democracy to vote," he said. "You need vast participation for it to work. You need to express the direction you want your country to go."

He credited his ninth-grade government teacher with sparking his interest in politics, saying his teacher inspired him to pay attention to the issues.

He acknowledged it can be difficult for young people to see how voting impacts their current lives.

"They need to see that it will have massive impacts on how they live in the future," he said.

Classmate Kathryn Kelley, who voted at Thursday's march, said she's been looking forward to voting since she registered in 2016. Her main issue is the environment, including supporting candidates who will "help steer us away from climate change."

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